Two Screens for Teachers purchases second monitors for remote teachers
Oct 14, 2020, 8:35 AM
Kellie Goodall teaches an online eighth grade English class from her empty classroom at Walter Johnson Junior High School on the first day of distance learning for the Clark County School District amid the spread of the coronavirus on Aug. 24, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Teachers struggling with limited-at-home technology have a new option thanks to the nonprofit Two Screens for Teachers.
Two Screens for Teachers was started by local tech entrepreneurs who announced that they would purchase a second computer monitor for every Seattle School District teacher who needs one to help them better connect with their students while teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nonprofit is delivering 3,000 computer monitors to Seattle public school teachers at a value of about $430,000.
“I’ve spent my career in tech on two screens and can’t imagine working without them,” said Matt Lerner, co-founder of Two Screens for Teachers. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve asked our teachers to become tech experts, on top of doing the crucial job of educating our children. A second screen lets teachers see their students on one screen and their lesson plans on the other. This is a simple productivity solution that people in tech centers like Seattle take for granted.”
Lerner and Mike Mathieu, co-founders of Walk Score, started Two Screens for Teachers when they learned that educators were working from home with often only a small laptop. Lerner joined with other tech entrepreneurs to start matching donors with anyone who needed monitors.
Jannah Horvath teaches special education at Rising Star Elementary and told KIRO Radio that it was taking all her home electronics at once, including a laptop, iPad, and sometimes her personal devices, to teach. She also didn’t have a way to see her students faces until now.
“It’s really important so I can check on them, and I can see their face, and I can see when they’re tuning out,” Horvath said.
“I’ve had to buy a desk and organizing materials because I have a classroom not at school,” she added.
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Two Screens for Teachers is an independent project that operates in partnership with DonorsChoose. The project has been funded with a matching grant from the Mark Torrance Foundation, a collection of early Amazon, Microsoft, and Redfin employees, as well as venture capitalists from the Madrona Venture Group and Pioneer Square Labs.
The nonprofit says they have a waiting list of more than 20,000 teachers across the country who would like an additional PC monitor and they are working to fill that need. The goal is to deliver 250,000 monitors by the end of 2020.
Donate to Two Screens for Teachers online here.
The KIRO Radio Newsdesk contributed to this report.
